Suddenly
by KaileyD3221
Summary: Same story, different circumstances. After two brooding blonds lose their mothers their lives are sent in completely new directions. One living with the father that never wanted him, and the other falling for her boyfriend's new brother. Young LP NH
1. Chapter 1

"It was just really sudden," the blond girl cries into her sleeve

"It was just really sudden," the blond girl cries into her sleeve. I pass her the box of tissues.

"Was she killed on impact?" Tyler asks.

"No, she made it to the hospital, but she was dead before I got there." The girl continues to cry, "It was just a mistake. She only ran one red light."

"Lucas, you had a similar experience." Greg states. This means it's my time to talk.

"Um, yeah. She had a brain aneurism." I mutter. I still don't like talking about what happened to my mom.

"How did you find out?" Greg prods.

"A social worker pulled me out of school." I say looking at my feet.

"What about your dad?" Tom asks.

"I live with him now, but I didn't know him before." I shrug.

"That's so cool, like you were reunited," the blond girl perks up. She's new, and I know she said her name when she first came in, but I forgot, and am too embarrassed to ask.

"Not really, he was married his new wife before I was even born. I don't think he exactly planned for me." I answer.

"Maybe he didn't know about you." Daryl says.

"He lives two miles away." I say pulling at the sleeves of my sweatshirt.

"Jackie how is life with your grandparents?" Greg asks finally moving on. Group therapy is like that. The heat's turned on you and it's really intense for about two minutes, but then your done. Now it's the next sucker's turn.

"They don't have cable." Jackie says leaning back in her chair.

"Ask for it for your birthday." I shrug.

"They don't approve. They think drug, sex, and rock and roll all emanate from basic cable." Jackie rolls her eyes.

"What do they think about your hair?' the blond girl asks.

"They haven't seen it yet," she smirks as she runs her hands through her purple hair.

"Jackie, I think you should try to compromise with them, but go against them." Greg says glancing at his watch.

"Our sessions up, but I'll see you all next week." Greg says standing up. We all shuffle out of the room, and outside. I see Dan's sports car waiting for me. Without saying bye to anyone I go get in.

"How was it son?" Dan asks. I shrug. I don't like how he's started calling me son. I've only lived with him for a week, and he's certainly not 'dad' in my eyes.

We drive back to his house in relative silence. Dan puts a basketball game commentary on the radio, and he seems relaxed. I still sit on edge, not comfortable in this fancy car.

I'm not a Scott. I don't belong in the big house that we pull up too. I don't belong in the jaguar that I'm getting out of, and the boy playing basketball in the front yard is not my brother.

Only he is, and this is suddenly my life.

"Nathan, you're going to have to get all of those shots if you expect to make varsity next year." Dan shouts as we walk past Nathan towards the house.

"Dad, no freshman has ever made varsity." Nathan says as he wipes the sweat from his forehead.

"Well, no Scott has ever tried out in his freshman year." Dan says before he unlocks the door.

The second it's open I rush past him to go upstairs into my new room. I lock the door behind me and pull out the stupid diary that Greg makes everyone in therapy write.

I pull out a pen and balance it between my thumb and fingers. What should I write about? How tonight's the one-week anniversary of my moms death? How Nathan and I haven't exchanged one word, or how loud Deb and Dan yell at each other when they think I'm asleep?

I scribble down some bullshit about how I'm so excited that summer starts in two weeks, and how I'm going to be in high school. Maybe I'll try out for basketball too. I used to play all the time, but I haven't since my mom died. I wonder if my friends at the river court know what happened? Probably, I told my best friend Haley who talks to some of them.

Twenty minutes later I have seven full pages, and my hand throbs. But I do feel better, maybe Greg knows what he's talking about. When I first came to group therapy I thought he was another bullshitting psychologist, but I kind of like him now.

"Luke, dinner!" Nathan bangs on my door.

"Yeah, I'll be down in a second." I call back. I shove my notebook in the drawer next to my bed, and then unlock my door.

"Lucas, have you been crying?" Deb asks me as I take a seat at the table. I put a hand up to my eyes, and sure enough it feels damp. I quickly wipe them, embarrassed that I hadn't realized that I was crying.

"Men don't cry, Deb." Dan smiles at me as he puts a large helping of potatoes on my plate.

"It's okay for everyone to cry, Dan." Deb says with a forced smile.

"Its okay, I wasn't crying." I lie as my face burns with shame.

"You don't have to lie," Deb says looking at me as if I was seven.

"Can you even hear yourself? This is such bullshit." Nathan says with a mouth full of steak.

"Nathan, don't speak with your mouthful." Deb says ignoring him. Nathan swallows hard and puts his fork down.

"You're such a hypocrite." Nathan says powerfully. Deb and Dan both jerk their heads towards him.

"We don't do family dinner, mom you're not usually even home for dinner, and now we're some family. This is crap." Nathan says picking up his plate and disappearing up the stairs.

"I'm sorry about that." Deb says squeezing her eyes shut.

"Should-" I start to ask pointing up towards the stairs where Nathan disappeared off to.

"He'll calm down." Dan says harshly. My mom would never have let me just run off.

"I'm sorry," I say. I feel responsible for all of this. Their marriage is obviously crumbling, and probably because of me, the accident Dan thought he had left in the past.

And I just miss my mom.

"Lucas, you didn't do anything." Deb says looking a little anxious. I give her a small smile, and go back to picking at my food. I'm suddenly not so hungry.

"So, Lucas what are you thinking about doing this summer?" Dan asks.

"I thought I'd try out for high school basketball." I say. Dan's eyes brighten.

"You play?" He asks looking at me with more interest than he has since I got here.


	2. Chapter 2

"It was just really sudden," the blond girl cries into her sleeve

"One more week. That's it, and then summer. That's when he normally leaves," Peyton says. She's the blonde girl, as I've learned.

"Is he leaving this year?" Greg asks.

"I told him I was okay with it. I mean that's his job, and he loves it more than anything." Peyton shrugs.

"Not more than he loves you." I say interjecting for the first time in group therapy. Greg looks at me with a smile, and I feel a little bit proud.

Before my mom died I wasn't a quiet kid, but all of a sudden I just never feel like talking. But I guess this is what recovery is, slowly speaking up again.

"Who'll be with you when he goes away?" Jackie asks.

"I have a babysitter that always stops by, but I mean I've been home alone before." Peyton says, "and sometimes I stay with my best friend, and my boyfriend comes over during the day sometimes."

I look up at her, "You have a boyfriend?" I ask before even realizing what I'm saying. It's not like I'm surprised, she's very pretty. What I am surprised about is how much I care. I hardly even know this girl.

"We've been going out for a few months. He doesn't really understand about my mom though. He never wants to talk about that." She says looking away.

"That's too bad." Greg says, and then he turns in his chair.

"Jackie, I notice you're back to blond." Greg says.

"I took your advice. I went blond for cable." Jackie says flipping her hair over her shoulders. Still, her Marilyn Manson t-shirt isn't probably what her grandparents envisioned her in.

"My mom had me when she was fifteen, and my grandparents compromised with her that if she had an abortion they'd never talk about it again. So you can see why I was hesitant at first to work with them." She shares.

"Do your grandparents know that you know about that?" Greg asks.

"We spoke about it last night. They said they regretted that." She shrugs.

"But?" Greg prods.

"It still happened," Jackie tears a bit. Daryl hands her the tissue box.

"Does anyone want to share what they wrote about in their journal?" Greg asks.

"I wrote about kissing Savannah Chase," Tom says putting up a hand for a high five. Instead he gets a sigh from Peyton.

"Must you objectify women like that?" Jackie says looking at him with disgust. He laughs it off and shakes his head.

"Look it was my first time, okay. It was really exciting." He says.

"Aw," Jackie says seeming to forget how much she hated him a moment ago.

"I wrote about how I was thinking about trying out for basketball." I say. Basket ball tryouts are the last week of school then if you make it you practice with the team over the summer, and if not you can try out again for the non varsity team in the beginning of the year.

"That's ambitious." Rachel says. She's came here the same time I did, but she doesn't normally speak except to put in a sarcastic comment once in a while.

"Well, my dad, I guess, is into the idea." I say starting to get used to the idea that Dan's my dad. And it only took two weeks.

"My boyfriend's trying out too." Peyton nods.

"Maybe I will too," Tom shrugs.

"Sounds good guys,' Greg says looking at his watch like he always does at the end of our sessions, "tell me about it next week." He says getting up.

As I walk out to meet Dan, I think about how weird it would be to see Tom outside of group, or Peyton in the stands. Before therapy we didn't know each other, and we all go to different middle schools, but next year we'll all be at Tree Hill High.

As I go to sit in the front seat of the car I see a huge bag from Sports Chalet. I pick it up and put it on the floor in front of my seat.

"Open it up, son." Dan says motioning towards the bag. I set it on my lap, and look through it as we head towards Dan's house, or home I guess.

"Is this for me?" I ask timidly looking through what must be hundreds of dollars worth of basketball gear.

"If you want to play basket ball we needed to get you some proper shoes, sweats, and of course a ball." He says as if it was no big deal.

"Thanks," I say as I continue to look through the bag. The shoes are the kind the varsity team wears. I can't believe he just did this. It's like Christmas in a bag.

"I figured we could practice tonight before dinner, you, me, and Nathan." Dan says.

"Sure," I respond quickly. After all, the man just bought me everything I could ever need to play.

"Go change, I'll meet you out front in fifteen, and we'll start with a quick run." Dan says as he pulls into the driveway.

"Yes, sir." I say getting out of the car and going upstairs. I put on all my new clothes, even sweat bands, and the new shoes and rush back outside. Nathan doesn't look to happy to be here.

"-But I ran this morning!" Nathan is saying to Dan as I join them.

"Two runs wont hurt you, and Nathan I'd like it if you could take Lucas on your runs from now on." Dan says. Nathan nods.

"Make a quick lap around the block, I'll go pump up the ball." Dan says as he pushes Nathan off. Nathan takes off, and I quickly catch up.

"You shouldn't have told him you played basket ball," Nathan says to me as we begin our run.

"Why?" I ask.

"You'll see," Nathan says, and with that he quickens his pace. I keep up, step for step, but my breathing gets a lot harder than Nathan's.

"Alright you two against me. Lets see what you've got." Dan says greeting us back in front of the house after our run. He throws Nathan the ball and we begin a game.

Nathan passes to me, and Dan intercepts.

"You gotta watch it," Dan says as he scores a basket. To be fair, he's got about five inches on us, and maybe fifty pounds.

A few minutes later, during our game, I spot Haley approaching the house.

"Hey" she yells as she walks up the driveway towards where we're playing.

"Do you mind?" I ask Dan.

"We're almost done. Ten minutes," Dan says. I put out a finger to Haley to let her know to wait.

She sits on the steps up to the front door and watches us finish out game.

About twenty minutes later, Dan finally lets us go.

"Family bonding?" Haley asks skeptically as I approach her.

"I guess." I say leading her inside.

"You smell disgusting." Haley laughs as we head up the stairs.

"Give me ten minutes," I say as I shut the door in my room behind us. I go into my bathroom. That's right; in this house I have a bathroom in my room!

When I get out Haley is flipping through _Of Mice and Men_.

"Let me get dressed, and we'll go get some food." I say grabbing some clothes from my dresser.

"You're brother's kind of cute." She smiles looking up at me.


	3. Chapter 3

"It was just really sudden," the blond girl cries into her sleeve

Hey guys, thanks for all the reviews, and feel free to tell me whatever you think. Also sorry about the first line that keeps showing up. I have no clue why its happening, lol, its not on my word document. So, anyhow…here's the chapter.

XXXXXXXX

"Rachel, you've quiet lately," Greg says.

"What's there to say? I shouldn't even be here." She says crossing her hands over her chest.

"Why don't you think you should be here?" Greg says

"All of you guys lost some one, or went through something horrific. I brought all my shit on myself." Rachel says.

"What?" I ask not quite getting what she's saying.

"My parents think throwing money around will make up for anything. Like buying me therapy will be some sort of cure-all. I tried to kill myself, I mean come on." she says with a big fake smile.

"Why Rachel?" Peyton asks.

"Because I was ugly, and there's not exactly someone here to miss me." She says

"You're not ugly, and I'd give anything to have my parents here, with their love or not." Jackie says.

"Jackie, you have no idea what its like to have parents who hate you." Rachel sits up and uncrosses her arms. "My mom calls me fat every time we talk, which isn't exactly often. My dad hasn't been at home for almost a full year. My parents have three houses, and I'm pretty much just an accessory in the Tree Hill one." Rachel yells, "I almost wish they would die so I could have an excuse for being so fucked up."

"They don't know what they're missing." Greg says

"Let's move on," Rachel says slouching back down in her chair. She re-crosses her arms. Greg stares at her for a moment, that his way of telling her it's not over, but she still says nothing.

"So Peyton, have you talked to your dad about him leaving?" Greg finally moves on after an awkward silence.

"We've been doing a lot of talking lately. It's about time too." Peyton says.

"How was your relationship before you're mom died." Greg says. Peyton gulps, probably not yet used to Greg's bluntness. It's probably also the first time someone's said that her mom died, I know Haley still refers to my mom dying as 'it'.

"Well, I got my period two nights ago." Peyton starts. My eyes immediately move to the floor. Awkward.

"So, that sort of started everything. He said he was sorry that he wasn't really prepared for this, and we talked about my mom a lot. I told him he could leave for the summer, but to try to stay close and to come back a lot." She says

"How do you feel about all that?" Greg says.

"It's okay if he leaves. He lost the love of his life. I can't take away his job. He loves it too much. It would be like him asking me to stop listening to music." She rationalizes.

"I'm sure he loves you more than his job. If you want him to stay you should just ask him to," I say. It's pretty obvious that she doesn't want him to go. She looks all gloomy, and what not.

"I want him to go, and I can take care of myself. I'm a women after all, I can even have a baby." She smiles proudly.

"So this was seriously your first time?" Jackie asks. Peyton nods.

"I was nine, but then again I weighed about a hundred and thirty pounds." Rachel says.

"Can we stop talking about this?" Tom chokes out.

"It's not like its contagious," Peyton smirks

"How about we move on." Tom tries again.

"Seriously," I laugh. I don't really want to hear about how Peyton can have a baby, but now that's what's on my mind. She'd have to be having sex though; then again she has a boyfriend. I doubt they're having sex.

"Lucas?" Greg says. I snap my head out of my thoughts. My eyes scan past Peyton and my face gets hot, I was just thinking about her having sex, oh my god I'm like a pervert. No other girl has made me feel like this. It's weird.

"Sorry, what?" I ask.

"How is your relationship with your half brother?" Greg asks.

"We started playing basketball together. We've been talking a little bit. So it's been going a lot better." I smile.

"That's great, we're out of time guys but we'll be back same time next week." Greg says. I go outside, and see Dan in his usual spot waiting for me.

We drive back in relative silence, but I see Nathan waiting outside for me.

"Why are you so smiley?" He asks as I hop out of the car. Smiley? Thanks god this kid's good at sports.

"No reason," I say as I follow him inside the house to get dressed for our run.

"It's a girl, isn't it?" He asks following me up to my room. He's oddly perceptive for someone with such a small vocabulary. He comes inside behind me, and I realize he's never been in here before, or well, not since this room was mine.

"Maybe." I say pulling off my shirt.

"Don't tell Dan, he doesn't approve of dating until you make varsity." Nathan shakes his head.

"That's weird." I say as I finish putting on my clothes.

"When I was eleven, for my birthday he gave me a bottle of lube and told me to savor it for the next four to six years because I could never have a relationship with a girl until I was on the high school basket ball team." Nathan tells me as we head outside. I laugh.

"So you've never-" I start to ask, then he laughs.

"Dude, I have a girlfriend, and she's not my first. That bottle lasted maybe a month." He laughs.

"Dude, over-share." I laugh too.

"So who's the girl?" He asks

"Just a girl." I shrug, "she's kind of unavailable, and not to mention uninterested."

"Well, go for it anyway." Nathan laughs. I laugh too; this is the first real conversation we've ever had where we're both sharing stuff about ourselves. I kind of like having a brother.

"So when exactly do you have time to see your girlfriend?" I ask

"Her parents aren't really around, so I'm at her house a lot. But she comes here too all the time, there's an outside door connected to my room." Nathan smiles.

"You're sneaky." I say despite slowly getting out of breath.

"She's coming over after our run, you can meet her." Nathan says.

"Cool, is it serious?" I ask

"We've been dating for a seriously long time, and she's seriously hot." He says

"That's not what I meant." I say. We clearly view relationships and love differently. I meant if he really likes her, or if they have real conversations, or just hook up. But growing up with parents like Dan and Deb I understand why we see it differently.

"It's kind of just physical. We used to get along really well, but she's changing a lot. Like she's getting all girly and moody." He says

"Moody?" I ask

"Yeah, like she only wants to talk about depressing shit, and I don't. Then she gets all mad at me for not being as depressed as she is." Nathan groans.

I try to respond, but I don't really have any experience to give an answer with. Also I'm too out of breath to speak, I need to get into better shape fast. Thankfully, I make it back to the house without collapsing.

"Here, check this out." Nathan says taking us to the side of the house, and going through the side door, instead of the front door.

I look around. This is the first time I've been in his room. He has a lot of basketball posters, and a huge TV.

I also notice a certain blond sitting on his bed. Shit.


End file.
